A Demon's Apology
by Tsumugi Eternity
Summary: Set some time after the National Tournament, a grief-stricken Kaidoh found a demon knocking on his doorstep. "I'm the Laugh Maker." He said.


**A story based on Laugh Maker by Bump of Chicken. Go check it out! It's a really nice song!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, its characters and the song this story is based on. **

**Warning: Slight swearing and violence.**

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As soon as Kaidoh reached his home, he immediately locked the door behind him. He slumped against it in the darkness, his knees bent to his chest. One hand reached out to his black hair, wishing to yank away all his sorrow with a single clench of his fist.

"Damn it! If only I had been stronger, Inui-sempai wouldn't have to be..." His words died in his throat. His mind wandered back to the said event a week ago, the National Tennis Tournament. Inui and he had faced a pair in a doubles match and..., Kaidoh yanked his hair so hard that his knuckles turned white.

The drowning sorrow inside the house was broken with an abrupt knock at the door.

"Who is it?!" Kaidoh grumbled out of courtesy. He was definitely not in the mood to meet anyone face to face.

There was a pause before the person on the other side answered. "I-I'm the...I'm the Laugh Maker! Err...It's a silly name and all that but I brought you a smile so let me in?" The voice was wavering with uncertainty. The person was saying rubbish, yet Kaidoh felt a pang of familiarity, something that made his stomach dropped. Regardless, Kaidoh had no plan to entertain this ridiculous guest.

"I'm not the person you are looking for. So leave!" Kaidoh made no effort to suppress his vexation. However the person on the other side seemed to completely miss the clue.

"Oi! Kaidoh Kaoru! Just let me in, okay!" At the mention of his name, Kaidoh's mind suddenly recall the owner of the voice. _Kirihara Akaya, _the demon who made Inui to what he was today... Rage promptly rushed through his veins, heightening his adrenaline.

"I know that I have said some weird stuff- damn Niou-sempai for giving me this- but I just want to-!"

His words were cut short by a loud bang. It was the sound of a fist connecting with the wooden door. Kaidoh swung his other hand once more without moving from his original position to emphasis his point.

"Don't joke with me!" Kaidoh howled, his mind blinded in hatred. "Don't fucking joke with me! I don't want to see your shitty face now. Piss off!"

Kaidoh could hear his words echoed solemnly in the empty house. Silence descended between them, but Kaidoh couldn't care less. He did not want company, let alone from the cause of his sorrow. And how dare he called himself laugh maker? The irony made Kaidoh felt a bitter tingle in his heart.

A considerable amount of time passed before another sound of knocks flew in. Kaidoh had to have fallen asleep on the floor as his mind was clouded enough not to immediately notice the person behind the door.

"Who is-!" As realization dawned on him, his face contorted in suppressed anger. He gritted his teeth. "Why are you still here?"

The sudden bang on the door jolted Kaidoh out of his state. The source of the impact seemed to be from the upper part of the door, yet the reverberation could be felt clearly from where Kaidoh was seated at. He furiously stood up, glaring widely at the door like a snake eyeing its prey. Akaya would pay hell for this, Kaidoh cursed as his hand reached for the knob while the other was clenched in a fist.

"Damn it!" A choked cry stopped Kaidoh an inch away from the knob. "Damn it damn it damn it!" Kaidoh could only stood there frozen as he listened to Akaya banging on his door.

"I can't return to Kanagawa. I can't go to Rikkai if I don't apologize to you. I don't want to but damn it!" Akaya banged the door again. "Yanagi-senpai will not talk to me until I end this problem. I don't understand why I must do this!" Another bang landed. "And I thought that Niou-senpai helped me to see you easier, but..." The last bang that landed was far weaker than its predecessor. It was followed by a strangled sob.

Kaidoh had no clue of what he was supposed to do. He did not understand what was happening. It was too surreal. One minute he was drunk in his own sorrow after his visit to the hospital and now he had a crying demon behind his door. Kaidoh was more than prepared to punch the life out of a demon, but the tears washed away all his determination. Tears was something he did not want to associate with if anything. He gritted his teeth. Why must Akaya make everything more difficult? He groaned inwardly.

The sobbing did not end even after a minute had passed, and Kaidoh's patience was running thinner than ever. It simply took him an extra second to finally exploded.

"OI YOU BASTARD!" Kaidoh screamed, prompting the sobbing to an abrupt halt. "You had hurt Inui-senpai until he is hospitalized just to win a match. How dare you show your face before me, you cheater! You can't defeat me so you aimed for him. Now you can't even face the consequences. Go home, you seaweed haired coward! I have no business with a crybaby like you." He spat. With firm resolution, Kaidoh turned his back to the door and walked away from it. He had decided not to deal with this problem.

Kaidoh walked to his living room which was enshrouded in darkness. The daylight permeating through the curtains was enough for him to see his way. He took his mp3 player with its headset on a couch and laid down there with the music plugging his ears from the reality, from the banging of the door which increased in ferocity as time passed by. Kaidoh just wanted to clear his head for a moment. The intricate sound of _biwa_ could do the job.

Even as the music played, he couldn't help but to think of Akaya. Somehow he could see the face of his younger self crying as Akaya's sobs replayed in his head. Kaidoh immediately turned up the volume to maximum. He had decided that he would not deal with it. Akaya could apologize directly to Inui-sempai if he had to, Kaidoh reasoned.

Out of the blue, a sound louder than his music penetrated his blocked ears. Kaidoh shot up and unplugged his ears. Standing up, he scanned the surroundings. His hearings were still ringing due to the damaging volume he listened to his music at, but he could feel that the circulation of the room suddenly became better. Looking at the window, the curtain was swaying energetically due to the wind and- there were shards of glass scattered on the floor below it. There was also a lone tennis ball standing out suspiciously.

Kaidoh instantly tensed, his mind alert to find out the culprit. He did not have time to react as a hand shot out and pushed him so hard on the couch that the couch flipped backwards. He struggled to free himself only to have a racket swung and stopped dangerously before his face. The hand that restricted his oxygen intake did nothing to help his struggling.

When his mind regained consciousness from the shock, he could see the culprit and he gaped. It was the demon with blood-like skin and hair as white as a bone. Despite the colors, he could not mistaken the seaweed-like curly hair.

"Play a match with me!" Akaya's voice boomed throughout the room. Kaidoh replied him with a punch but Akaya was quick enough to avoid it with a flick of his neck. The grip on his neck tightened.

"HIA HIA HIA HIA HIA! COME ON COWARD! PLAY WITH ME!"

"Y-you...!" Kaidoh choked out. Images of his match against Akaya during the National Tournament flashed in his mind. All those balls that were aimed at Inui. And that laughter...

Patches of black slowly crept over his eyesights. His lungs screamed in pain for not getting its required intake. Kaidoh was slowly succumbing to darkness-

-when suddenly his futile attempts at inhaling air succeed. In immense quantity.

Kaidoh doubled over and coughed at the sudden excessive intake of oxygen. His hands shot up to his neck in reflex yet his mind did not register the lack of presence of another hand until much later. He also noticed that as he brought his hands to his neck, one of them had a racket gripped.

Akaya, still in his demon mode, stepped over towards where Kaidoh's head was and loomed over him, his head in exact opposite direction to Kaidoh's.

A devilish grin adorned his face. "I'll show you that I don't need that senpai of yours to defeat you!"

The overwhelming amount of information combined with his tranced-like state made Kaidoh unresponsive. He still had a hard time processing all the information. Akaya, annoyed by this, scooped him up by his shirt and brought him so close that their noses nearly touched.

"Let's have a match. You and me. No blood involved. _And you can avenge him by defeating me._"

Kaidoh wasn't sure whether he heard Akaya correctly, but he smiled. He had always liked tennis, and he had been wanting to pay Akaya back for quite some time.

Gripping the racket on his hand tightly, Kaidoh snapped his head forward that their foreheads met. He intently stared at the pair of bloodshot eyes, glad that he found determination hidden behind the malicious looking orbs.

"As you wish." Kaidoh smirked.

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**AN: This story is based on Laugh Maker by Bump of Chicken and...it strayed off course really fast. I did not plan to follow true to the song completely, but I guess this story is a bit taken too far *grins*.**

**I hope this story is not OOC. Having not seeing PoT for so long, I can barely remember their traits that I have to do some research on it *sweatdrop*. As for the story, I hope it's logical enough.**

**I have this plan on doing other similar stories using other pairings but...what do you guys think? Share your thoughts by clicking that button below that needs clicking as much as Kaidoh needed oxygen in the story above.**

**Hope you enjoy the story~**


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